New Ships on the Horizon

At the end of last month, Carnival announced that it had reached an agreement with Fincantieri for the construction of two new ships — a 2,660-passenger ship for Holland America Line scheduled for delivery in fall 2015 and a 4,000-passenger ship for Carnival Cruise Lines scheduled for delivery in winter 2016.

Both ships will introduce new classes to their respective lines.

“Today’s order continues the company’s strategy of introducing two to three ships per year across the corporation’s 10 brands, said Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation. “We have strategically scheduled the introduction of these new ships to allow ample time for those brands to further grow their passenger base and absorb the new capacity while minimizing revenue yield dilution in the remainder of their existing fleets.”

Arison indicated that some older ships may be sold when new vessels are delivered.

Meanwhile, during a conference call regarding third quarter results in October, Royal Caribbean chairman and CEO Richard Fain said that the company is in negotiations to build another Oasis-class ship in addition to the two Project Sunshine ships on order.

“From 2012 through 2016, our berth capacity growth is less than 3 percent and, in fact, we don’t have any ship deliveries in 2013,” he said. “But, as we said before, we can’t stagnate. Given the long lead time for a new vessel, we’re approaching the point where a new order could not be delivered until middle to late 2016, by which time we will be enjoying much better profitability and improved credit metrics.”